Long-term floating control-released intravesical preparation of 5-fluorouracil for the local treatment of bladder cancer

Abstract

In order to overcome the low compliance due to the frequent bladder perfusion of anti-cancer drugs in the treatment of bladder cancer, a long-term control-release of the anticancer drug in the bladder, the floating intravesical preparation was developed. 5-fluorouracil was used as model drug. The floating preparations were prepared by tableting (mini-tablets) and melting (mini-pellets) method. The proportion of 5-fluorouracil and glyceryl tristearate (GTS) was altered among formulations. Dissolution test, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to investigate the in vitro properties of the formulations. The in vivo evaluation was carried out in beagle dogs. The control-release property of the preparation was not only related to the content of 5-fluorouracil but also related to the preparing method. The releasing time of the mini-tablets was nearly several days, whereas that of the mini-pellets was almost several weeks. DSC and XRPD showed that GTS had polymorphic conversion in the preparing process, therefore, the stabilization procedure was necessary at the end of preparing. In vivo evaluation showed that the prepared long-term floating preparations could maintain an effective 5-fluorouracil concentration in the bladder for about one month, furthermore, in this period the 5-fluorouracil concentration in blood was always far less than that in urine.

Keywords:

• Control-released
• intravesical
• 5-fluorouracil
• bladder cancer
• glyceryl tristearate

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.